Seize the Birthday: use the word CELEBRATE

This is my last card for my guest designing the topper for Seize the Birthday and I thought I should finish with a cute card, as I really do love my wee cute animals that I can colour up with my Copics. This week's challenge the topper is to use the word celebrate on a birthday card. I'm also going to play along with the fun at Just Add Girls who have a "stencil" challenge.

I made a background using 3 inks to make a "rainbow" of colour and a stencil I received from Pink & Main in one of my big boxes from Scrapbook and Cards Today titled Fall 2022. I've used the yellow ink (Sunshine) for approximately 2/3rd of the stencil and then bought in the pink ink (Bubblegum) to make an orange and then from the bottom the teal (Turquoise) to make green.

Supply List:
Stamps: Moody Unicorn (GSD), Approaching Perfection (SU!)
Ink: Sunshine (PFS), Bubblegum (PFS), Turquoise (PFS), Lavender (PFS), Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Polished Pink (SU!), Neenah Solar White #110, Xpress IT blending

Dies: Frames & Flags (NN), Featured Sentiments (ALT)

Other: Celebrate stencil (P&M), blending brushes (TE), 2mm foam squares (SP), Prisma glitter (LF), Copics, white Gelli roll pen #10 and Quickie glue pen (Sakura)

Challenge: STB#292, JUG#746

Well I hope you can join in and celebrate along with the topper for my final Guest Designer spot with STB and a big THANK YOU to the Seize the Birthday design team for inviting me to have fun and play along with them in August and September; I've had a blast!

✿Karen✿

Humbled & Grateful

It's time for some Inspiration from the Just Add Ink team for this week's challenge. 

I was a bit stumped as I didn't have any stairs or pot plant stamps to my recall in my stash, so I thought outside the box and decided the stairs which to me are the dominant feature were blue stripes and I would add a wee terracotta coloured sprig of flowers along the left hand edge. I love how my card turned out; so it was a fab inspirational photo and I can't wait to see how you interpret the photo.

All of the products I have used today are Pinkfresh Studio and I have blogged before using this set which I think is really versatile, you can see that earlier post HERE. 

I have used a Horizontal Stripe stencil which is for slimline cards but have blended on an A2 panel and you just get a slimmer panel and so my white space is the grey walls. I used 3 blue inks and fading them to the right, starting with the lightest at the top as the stairs would be brighter as they reach the light: Summer Shower, Seaside, Blue Jay. 

I stamped the image from the Humbled & Grateful set in Warm Buff aka "faux gold". This is an easy set with only 2 stencils the flowers and the leaves but using the 1/2" blending brushes from PFS you can still get some graduation easily and I added a deeper colour with the 1/4" brush. Flower stencils were Sunkissed and Mango Sorbet. Leaf stencil was Eucalyptus and Spruce Tips. The sentiment was stamped with Mimosa which is the ink between the two I have used on the flowers. 

Last but not least some Butterscotch glitter drops for a wee bit of bling. All the die cuts have been stacked with plain diecuts as so much detail it would be very tedious to add foam underneath. I hope I have inspired you to find some inspiration from the photo and join in with the fun at Just Add Ink.

I'm also going to play along with Just Us Girls as they have an Anything Goes Stencil week. I have to admit stencils are a really big part of my card making these days, so a fun challenge to join in with. 

Thanks for stopping by, have a fab weekend and hopefully a KRafty one ;)

✿Karen✿

Just Add A Sketch

We have a fun sketch to play along with at the latest challenge at Just Add Ink. I dislike sketch challenges personally but push myself to do them as I've found in the past I've actually made some of my fav cards in sketch challenges. 

For this week's sketch I actually had so many ideas but thought I would do something a little bit out of the box and use a stencil to make my rectangles or in my case brushstrokes ;)

I'll also play along with Just Us Girls as they have a stencil challenge happening too.

I've used 4 pink Distress Oxide inks in the stencil starting off with the lightest.

I used warm grays on the mouse and toner greys on the paint brush.

Then all I needed was to add the wee "Picasso" of a mouse from the Love Art stamp set and a cute saying and viola done. I also added 3 other diecuts behind the mouse to give him/her some dimension.

Supply List:

Stamps: Love Art (CCC)

Inks: Spun Sugar, Saltwater Taffy, Kitsch Flamingo, Picked Raspberry, Versafine Clair Nocturne, Jet Black (LF)

Paper: Neenah Solar White, Dragonfruit (C9)

Other: Brush Stroke stencil (SSS), Master Layouts 2 (GKD), Copics, white Gelli Roll no. 8 pen, blending brush (TE)

Challenges: JAI #712, JUG#737

Well I can't wait to see what everyone creates with this fabulous sketch so hope you can join in with the fun. Thanks for popping in.
✿Karen✿

AAA Card Challenge 266: Sketch Challenge

I am so looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with for this sketch challenge. I have struggled for months with it. The joy of being on the Design Team, I get to see a year's worth of challenges and can work away at my own pace. This one has had me stumped as all I can see is "Mickey Mouse". I was going to use some circle dies and make a Mickey but didn't really have anything to use with the 3 black circles etc. and I've never been very good with punch art on a card.

Imagine my relief when I got a new stencil set which has triangles on it and then it was like yah I can make Christmas trees with it. I have to say this was quick, easy and only required moving the post-it note around to cover up triangles I didn't want to blend by accident. So this would be great to recreate for bulk card making for Christmas.

Supply List:

Stamps: Itty Bitty Holiday (MFT)

Ink: Mint (PFS), Meadow (PFS), Ocean Breeze (PFS), Versafine Clair Nocturne

Paper: Hammermill White

Other: Leaf and Sky Blue clear drops (PFS), Overlapping Triangles stencil (PFS), 1/2" blending brushes (PFS)

Challenges: AAA #266, JUG#728

I look forward to seeing what the Design Team and the entrants create with this sketch so hope you can play along too. I'm also going to play along with Just Us Girls as they are wanting stencils this week and my card is 3 stenciled triangles.

✿Karen✿

It's bright and sunny...

at my place today, it truly is a perfect Autumn day. I think this may have influenced me what challenges I had a play along with as I had different ideas when I went into play.

So I ended up playing along with Color Hues (pink and yellow) which made colouring up my scene very easy with minimal Copics. CAS on Friday would like some sunshine and Just Us Girls would like a stencil; so sunshine was added to my wee scene with a stencil. I love it when the challenges direct how the card is created.

I chose this really cool sentiment so I had to change the orientation of my card. I actually stamped the sentiment first then stamped the bunny, then masked the bunny, stamped the towel, masked the towel, then stamped the beach umbrella, masked the umbrella, then did my ink blending through the stencil. Removed masks and Copic coloured up quite simply as a 2 colour challenge at Color Hues. I even coloured up my bunny with light pink E's.

Supply List:

Stamps: Beach Day (EE), Let's Chill (EE)

Inks: Versafine Clair Nocturne, Detail Black (PFS), Lemon Whip (PFS), Sunshine (PFS)

Paper: Neenah Solar White #80 and #110lb

Other: Copics, Sunray Background stencil (LF), Inside Out Stitched Rectangle die (LF), blending brushes, masking paper

Challenges: TCH#85, CAS on Friday #282, JUG #724

Well I think that's a trifecta when the sum of the three challenges makes it better than if I did them as stand alone. Thanks for popping in.

EDITED 1/5/24: My card was a runner up at the Color Hues Challenge which makes me really happy as OMG there were some lovely yellow and pink cards entered.

EDITED 10/5/24: Very thrilled my card was the CAS on Friday winner.

✿Karen✿

Let's Get "Striped" with Time Out Challenges

I am absolutely thrilled and delighted to be the Guest Designer for Time Out Challenges latest challenge. It's a real fun one too; to use stripes on your project. You have 2 weeks to have a go and you too could be a future Guest Designer for a challenge (if you want too) AND Lawn fawn are generously sponsoring this challenge so you could also win a $25 Gift Card to the Lawn Fawn store, how cool is that!

I'm using a card idea that Jenn Shurkus, taught me/us at a 2023 Virtual Art Retreat. I've modified her idea and am using a stencil and distress inks to make my stripes. Jenn loves making fab backgrounds. In her original class we made very loose streaks of colour using Distress Watercolor Pencils as our background then placed our dark grey Copic coloured image on top. 

I've used a stencil to re-create her look and working with my smaller blending brushes to blend in the stripes. As I am actually using a slimline stencil I die cut out a perfect stitched rectangle with Lawn Fawn's largest Inside Out Stitched rectangle die. But oops I'd been a bit messy and there was gold embossing powder on my plates and I had gold speckles on the RHS after running through my Big Shot. As this was my second go at doing the panel, I went into how to fix-it mode. So spritzed with shimmer spray and water and blotted but felt it needed some black splatters. I used my Licorice spray bottle to add a few drops by unscrewing and just tapping lightly the tubing for the nozzle to make controlled wee drops/splatters. When I sprayed it was much too dark on my practice run. 

My first panel I added a glitter paste through the stencil after ink blending and it looked fab but had a few funny reactions around some of the stripe edges which is why I tried again to make my striped panel.

Supply List:
Stamps and dies: Humbled and Grateful (PFS)

Distress Inks (RNG): Worn Lipstick, Kitsch Flamingo, Dried Marigold, Squeezed Lemonade, Twisted Citron, Salvaged Patina, Shaded Lilac, Wilted Violet

Paper: Hammermill white, Neenah #110, Black

Other: Versafine Clair Nocturne ink, clear embossing powder, Frost shimmer spray (imagine), Licorice Izink dye spray, distress mista bottle, small blending brushes (TE) and foam strips, Inside Out Stitched rectangle die (LF), Horizontal stripes slimline stencil (PFS), Warm Gray Copics (W2,4,6,8)

Well this is a fun, fun challenge and there's no doubting that adding stripes is really effective so hope you can join in as well but definitely check out the Time Out Challenge blog to see the the inspiration on show.

I'll also enter my card at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge which is an anything goes challenge. I also see Just Us Girls would like us to use  a stencil so I'll also enter their current challenge.

Thanks for popping in.
✿Karen✿

Surprise Easter Card

I wanted to play along with CAS on Friday's Easter challenge plus combine with the elements from Tic Tac Toe too. So my card front is my clean and simple card for CAS on Friday:

I wanted to make a peek-a-boo window for my wee Easter chicken but I only own a square one from MFT so made my own using Just Stitching Double Circle dies (LF) and a circle die to make a window inside the double stitching.

Now I could have stayed with the CAS theme for Tic Tac Toe but I wanted to make a wee scene inside the card so I'm entering the inside of the card for TTT243 (Easter Eggs, pastel colours, grass). I'll also enter the inside of the card into the collaboration for "birds of a feather" with Time Out and Just Us Girls as well, plus Simon Says : Easter/Spring for their Wednesday Challenge too!

Aren't they just adorable, I've used an older stamp set from Lawn fawn called Chirpy Chirp Chirp and it has stamps to fill in the Easter egg and also the wee flower petals and wee butterflies, which made Copic colouring the chickens and bunny helmets easy.

I just grabbed 2 colour combos from my earliest blends I have, so nothing too fancy but I do like the peachy one a lot.

Supply List:

Stamps: Chirpy Chirp Chirp (LF), Eggstraordinary Easter Add-on (LF - sentiment)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Fresh Freesia (SU!), Pale Papaya (SU!), Sparkling Rose (PFS), Sunshine (PFS)

Paper: Neenah Solar White #110, Xpress IT blending, Flower Market DSP (LF - retired)

Dies: Grassy border (LF), Just Stitching Double Circles (LF), Sweet Stacks : Circles (HB)

Other: Copics

Challenges: CAS on Friday #279, TTC#243, TOC#259 , JUG#718, SSSW

Well that was a lot of fun combing a CAS card front with an Easter scene inside, hope you can find time to join in with one or all of the challenges.

EDITED 29/3/24: Very excited to say my wee card was chosen as the winner at CAS on Friday. I loved the card so pleased others agreed.

✿Karen✿

Birds of a Feather

Two of my fav challenge sites Just Us Girls and Time Out Challenges have for their current challenge a collaborative challenge "Birds of the Feather". 

Suggestions were birds, feathers and "birds" of course can be us ladies/girls too. I had an idea but when I saw this DSP covered in feathers in the Bird Ballad collection (SU! - retired) I just had to use it.

I decided I needed a biggish bird, so it was time to bring out the Bird Crazy set (Stampers Anonymous). When I use one of the crazy critters I like to add on an accessory from Crazy Things and as Easter is approaching fast I chose the bunny ears. I coloured them all up using my Distress Watercolor pencils. I've cut out the eyes to make it crazier, popped them up on foam and added some Crystal Glaze (Nuvo). The word-fetti comes from Let's Chill (EE). The yellow card stock is Honeycomb from Concord &9 as it kind of matched the Mustard Seed pencil .

Well that was a lot of fun, just looking at the card makes me smile! Thanks for popping in.

✿Karen✿

Going green (again)

Looking at my fav challenges sites, there's quite a few wanting "green" still so thought I'd try the luck of the Irish again and play with a free stamp set I earned from Simon Says Stamp 1 or 2 years ago (End of the Rainbow). It has a cool big sentiment complete with a shamrock and a lucky horseshoe but no Leprechaun just a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, which was cute but I green rainbow wasn't doing it for me, so I thought I'd try and colour up a wee gnome "leprechaun-style" complete with gold beard from my Little Gnome Agenda set (ME).

Lots of firsts here I'm not really sure how you are supposed to use Distress embossing glaze but I bought it as I love lime green awhile ago. I used it on the card like embossing powder i.e. stamping sentiment with my Versamark, coating with the Twisted Citron embossing glaze and then melting with a heat gun, it's definitely a pretty lime green. I added a few metallic gold pearls to add a tad more gold to the card.

Challenges I'm entering:

Just us Girls: Green, Lime Green and one other colour - hope gold is a colour

Inspired By: I've been inspired by the green shamrock plus a touch of gold

Colorful Options monthly challenge - this is a new site I have just discovered but it looks like it will be a colourful and fun one - this month the colour is green. 

I'll re-enter at Simply Clean & Simple as they have the option for March of Green as well. And it seems silly to not add to SSS Wednesday Challenge as they just want/need a sentiment.

This was totally different than my last green card which you can check out the wee frog and green clouds HERE. Well it looks like we all need to play with our greens a bit more which is perfectly fine with me. Do check out all the fab cards on all the sites, it certainly makes me happy.

EDITED 13/3/24: My wee card got a shout out at Just Us Girls "where they loved my fabulous CAS design."

✿Karen✿

Let's Celebrate with Cake

It's obviously the month of February, a lot of my favourite challenge sites want hearts and/or pink and red. As one of those sites was AAA Birthday I had to include birthday in the mix too, and to be honest I have too many Valentine Cards in my stash at the mo, though I have decided to send out my V-cards to my girlfriends  this year (plus Pete can also have one), rather than my wee nieces with a simple sentiment inside saying Happy Galentine's day and that I appreciate them being part of my life. 

I used an old Penny Black stamp set which is called Furry Hugs, most of the images seem to have hearts on them but I thought the one I chose was appropriate with a wee cake for the "birthday".

I ended up stamping it directly onto my XpressIt card stock and colouring in with my Copics as it is old school and doesn't have a matching die. I didn't like my original colours I chose so it ended up getting a second blend on top. These are a guesstimate of what I used in the end:

Hedgehog body: E43/E50/R11

Hedgehog quills: I started off using T8/6/4/2 and then decided it needed some brown in the mix so also added E59/57 and the E43 again as they were sitting on my desk.

Cupcake pink icing: RV29/ R35/R32/R30

Heart: R35/RV13/RV21

Cupcake wrapper: RV13/21/10

Wee sprinkles: R35

I added Prisma glitter to the wee hearts and Crystal Glaze to the big heart, so it's lovely and shiny IRL.

Supply List:
Stamps: Furry Hugs (PB), Itty Bitty Celebrations (MFT)

Ink: Jet Black (LF), Versafine Nocturne Clair

Paper: Xpress IT blending, Neenah Solar White #110, Poppy Parade (SU!), Stripes n' Sprinkles DSP (LF)

Dies: Small Stitched Rectangle stackable (LF), Party Banners (MFT)

Other: Copics, Prisma glitter (LF), Crystal Glaze (Nuvo), white Gelli roll pen #8 (Sakura), black glaze pen (Sakura), Quickie glue pen (Sakura)

Challenges: AAA Birthday #58, Addicted to CAS #251, Color Hues #80, Just Us Girls #712

Well I enjoyed playing along with the 4 challenges and it's always good to have another birthday card in your stash. I know I've had a lot of birthdays lately and my stash was getting low.

Thanks for popping in.

EDITED: 15/3/24: My card was chosen to be in the Top Four at AAA Birthday which is always a lovely surprise to be noted.

✿Karen✿